Look at who'd he fought and beat prior to that WBA title shot. He'd never even had a commonwealth or british title fight. Unbelievable how it got approved.
Then a few fights later Khan got a undeserved shot at it when he'd never even fought in the division, just after he got KO'd in 50 seconds by Prescott. That WBA title has to be the weakest titlists for a belt in a row ever... Souleymayne M'baye to Gavin Rees to Andreas Kotelnik to Amir Khan.
I remember the old popped ear drum that Rees suffered. He was a real little swarmer who was fun to watch, technically not great though
Gavin Rees actually improved hell of a lot after he lost world title. Gary Lockett did a great job with him getting down to lightweight.
Another non elite World Champion similar to Bellew, Haye, Burns, Crolla, Joshua, Cleverley - the list is endless. In the case of Rees we have a fighter who really punched above his weight in terms of achievements. Always grateful to him for taking out Kerry Mathews in 2012
His record does read very weird though, wins the world title out of no-where, loses it in his first defence to a good boxer in Kotelnik, then he goes on to have some good wins. Strange that his career got better after winning the title.
The worst brit champs of recent times = Paul Butler, Stuart Hall, Gavin Rees, Amir Khan, Junior Witter, Lee Haskins, Lee Selby, Kal Yafai,
